Re: CHAPDISC3: HBP 3, WILL AND WON’T

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 142641

(Waves a 'thanks!' to Ravenclaw Bookworm, wonders vaguely whether 
SSSusan and Petra left a few brownies....)

> Q15:  What is significant about Harry turning 17 or "coming of
> age" that would cause the protection to end?  

Jen: JKR said in an interview* after HBP: "That protection won't 
continue to hold once he is a man, once he turns 17 - he is no 
longer given that protective aura by his mother.." I thought it must 
have been the charm Dumbledore performed & Petunia sealed which 
would expire, but it sounds like something inherent to the ancient 
magic of the sacrifice.

(*ITV interview, July 2005)

> Q16: Why was Petunia "oddly flushed"?

Jen: My first thought about the flushing was Petunia felt embarassed-
-that's what causes me to flush! But I don't know if Petunia is 
capable of feeling that about Harry. Fear for her family would be 
more in keeping with what we know about her character. 

Dumbledore's reminder that Harry's protection will end soon, and his 
request for Harry to return one last time, brought about the odd 
flushing. How would that particular set of events affect *Petunia*? 
Shouldn't she be glad to be done with it all? 

Then I remembered the point JKR made that Petunia and Dumbledore had 
private correspondence prior to the letter left on the doorstep. 
Dumbledore may have been warning her that Voldemort was targeting 
the Potters, and had somehow learned about Petunia along the way. My 
guess is this was one piece of information passed by Pettigrew which 
found its way back to Dumbledore, and caused him to suspect a spy 
close to the Potters. 

To conclude (and this isn't a new idea), I think the blood 
protection goes both ways and protects Petunia and Dudley as well as 
Harry--notice how Petunia snaps to and mistakenly corrects 
Dumbledore that Harry will be an adult at 18 instead of 17? I think 
she's already been considering what they will do when Harry leaves, 
and is alarmed to hear the separation will come a year sooner, and 
likely before Voldemort is dead.


Jen